“We have a lot of young players that are willing to learn…” -Coach Tisa Shavers
The Diamond Bar High School girls tennis team lost to the Troy High School Warriors in a decisive match last Thursday. This is the second loss of the year for the team, whose overall record is now 13-2 with its league record of 10-1.
“This is a big match because Troy is a good Division I tennis team,” Coach Tisa Shavers said.
The Lady Brahmas started the match off poorly as the singles players struggled to keep up with the aggressive Warriors. “Troy has a couple dominant players that can hit the ball really fast and this is the best team we faced so far,” Shavers said.
Two of the Troy players are ranked in the top 25 in state. “It was intimidating competing against the top players, and even though it was not my best days,” senior singles player Padmaja Krisnan said.
The Lady Brahmas were able fight their way back with the help of their strong doubles teams. The number one doubles team, consist of with senior co-captain Melody Chen and junior co-captain Evelyn Wang, was able to overpower the match as the duo won the set 6-3. The number two doubles team of senior co-captain Joycelyn Chen and senior Christina Georgescu and the number three doubles team of junior Iris Hsieh and sophomore Karrie Tran were able to win their matches with the scores of 7-5 and 6-4, respectively. At the end of the first round the score was 3-3.
In the second round, however, the Brahmas were unable to hold off the Warrior dominant onslaught as they struggled to win sets. Although the number one doubles team quickly won its match 6-0, none of the singles players were able to win their matches. Chen and Georgescu competed in a lengthy set with some controversial calls, but ultimately fell short by a score of 5-7. After the second round, the Lady Brahmas were facing a 4-8 deficit.
The only chance the team had at victory was if it won four of the six sets in the third and final round. However, it was only able to win two games as the singles players were unable to win a single set. “I have to be more consistent and hit more angle shots,” sophomore singles player Amberly Cheng commented.
The number one doubles team of Chen and Wang were again able to bagel their competition. “My partner and I did really well as we were consistent and had a lot of nice angle shots,” Melody said. The number two doubles team also got a point for the Lady Brahmas tennis team winning the set 6-1. At the end of the third round, the final score was 6-12. “The team gave it their best shot,” Shavers stated.
Prior to the season, the Lady Brahmas was expected to win its sixth consecutive league title. Last year, the team made it to the CIF quarterfinals, but fell short to Troy. The young but inexperienced team still has to improve in some areas before they head into the CIF. “We have a lot of young talent that are willing to learn and we just need to get adjusted to the pressure moments,” the coach said.
